1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is a skimmer tank for skimming oil from water contained within the tank as it is being used as a water collection or water storage tank. The tank seeks to maximize retention time within the tank and to provide for automatic skimming of oil from the top of the tank without the need for any moving parts within the tank.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current oil skimmer tanks have moving parts that tend to cause problems. Also, most skimmer tanks require operator activation of oil removal from the tanks which can result in overflow of oil from the tanks. Additionally, because of the design of the tanks, the flow path of water through the tanks short circuits so that the retention time within the tank is less than optimum. Less retention time results in less effective separation of oil from the water, with loss of valuable oil and with production of waste water containing more oil-contamination which must be disposed. The more oil-contamination in the waste water creates a shortened life for waste water disposal wells and increases the cost of disposal.
The present invention addresses these problems by providing a skimmer tank that has no moving parts, is not operator activated and is designed to maximize retention time within the tank, resulting in better oil separation and recovery and cleaner water to be disposed.